


Cato and Clove: the Gamemaker Files

by SpaceShark



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Character Study, Clato Ship Week, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26807017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceShark/pseuds/SpaceShark
Summary: Every year, the Head Gamemaker receives summaries from his staff on each of the tributes for that year's Hunger Games and secretly makes copies for sponsors willing to pay up. These are the files for the District 2 tributes of the 74th Hunger Games, Cato and Clove.Clato Ship Week, day 3 - Character Study. I decided to do something a little different for "character study". It technically goes with "Two for Two" and is set in the same universe, although I suppose it works just as well for the regular book and movie canon.
Relationships: Cato/Clove (Hunger Games)
Kudos: 15





	Cato and Clove: the Gamemaker Files

Name: Cato Richardson

District: 2

Age: 18

Brief bio: Cato Richardson is the eldest son of Paulus Richardson, one of District 2’s leading magistrates and owner of a collection of small arms factories. Like virtually all of his district’s tributes, he attended the Peacekeeper Officer Academy of District 2, which ostensibly serves to train the Peacekeeper Corps’ future leaders, but has a side gig of training “Career tributes”, in the hopes that they have a better chance of victory and success in the Hunger Games. Like all Careers, he volunteered for the Games. By all accounts, he sees the Games as a matter of pride, bringing glory and fame to himself and his family.

Strengths: Cato is in his physical prime for an eighteen year old. He can endure long periods of physical activity and combat situations. He is skilled in multiple forms of martial arts and techniques, such as Muay Thai kickboxing and Krav Maga. Cato has experience in virtually all the weapons normally provided in the Cornucopia for the games, although his preferred tool of the trade and specialty is a sword, and he was considered the top of his class for the weapon. He is also what might be called an “Alpha male”, and has been observed leading a group of Careers forming an alliance before the games, including his district partner Clove Blackwell (see below), Marvel Zolomir and Glimmer Neagley (District 1, see files “Marvel Zolomir” and “Glimmer Neagley”) and Marina Covington (District 4, see file “Marina Covington”). All of these various attributes and characteristics, put together, make for a compelling favorite to attract sponsors and arguably win the entire Games.

Weaknesses: Like all Career tributes, Cato lacks knowledge of most survival skills taught in pre-Games training, such as making fires, hunting for food, finding shelter and water, and knowing the safety of various plants. He will likely rely on his fighting skills and brutality to win the Games. Cato is also known from academy sources to have a very high sense of self importance and to be extremely aggressive, picking fights over small perceived slights and real insults alike, and during pre-Games training became involved in an altercation with District 6 tribute Jason Frederick over a knife used in training (the knife was, unknown to both tributes, stolen by District 11 tribute Rue Lewis). It has been hinted that Cato has some sort of affection for his district partner Clove, although a sexual or romantic relationship is uncertain. What is certain is that Cato treats Clove far more considerately than Career tributes from the same district normally treat each other, knowing that even if they are the last two left standing, one will still have to kill the other to become Victor. Because of this, District 2 is one of two districts that may benefit the most from a rule change to allow two victors, the other being District 12 (see Weaknesses section for Peeta Mallark, District 12).

Final Score: 10. Cato is in many aspects the perfect tribute for the Hunger Games. His chances of success and ultimate victory will be very high, and sponsors can’t go wrong with betting on him from the beginning of the Games.

* * *

Name: Clove Blackwell

District: 2

Age: 16

Brief Bio: Clove Blackwell’s ultimate origins are shrouded in mystery. According to the Peacekeeper Officer Academy of District 2, she was discovered by Cato Richardson after she attempted to steal his food as a child. Noticing her skill with a stolen steak knife, he recommended to his father that the orphan girl living on the streets be brought to the academy and trained as a Career alongside him. Clove thrived in academy life, showing a strong aptitude for knife throwing, and the trainers considered her as skilled as girls even a year or two ahead of her grade level. Unusually for a Career volunteer, Clove is sixteen, two years younger than her district partner. She is publicly confident of success and her ability to win the Hunger Games this year.

Strengths: Clove Blackwell, of all the tributes this year, has the most skill with knives, a weapon found in the Cornucopia every year. In the training observed by the Gamemakers, she was seen at the range most of the time, showing off her throwing skills on countless targets and ballistics gel torsos. Her private training session consisted almost exclusively of a demonstration of knife throwing, with a few nods towards ability in other weapons if necessary. While smaller in size than the other Career tributes of this year, Clove is remarkably fast, and her smaller stature may allow her to get in and out of areas that other tributes would have a harder time getting access to. She is also in her physical prime for her age, with no known health problems or bodily weaknesses. Sponsors may choose to support her based on her chosen weapon’s ability for both short and long range lethality and relative speediness.

Weaknesses: Clove is sadistic to a fault. Partly as a result of a harsh childhood and partly from the rigorous mental and emotional conditioning from the academy, she is seen to show largely unhidden contempt for nearly everyone she has encountered thus far at the Capitol, the exceptions being her mentors and stylists. Conversations with academy leadership has confirmed this behavior, including a particular pleasure in executing death row criminals provided to the academy and livestock animals to be slaughtered for meat. In most causes, this kind of sadism would be beneficial to a tribute in the Games, but too much if it is a fault and can cause much arrogance where it is unneeded. The chance of a downfall caused by arrogance is relatively small, though. Another curious exception to her normal contempt is her district partner Cato, fueling our suspicions that the two may be involved in some sort of sexual or romantic relationship with each other. Her apparent disgust to Glimmer Neagley’s attempts to flirt with Cato seem to indicate as much (see Weaknesses section for Cato Richardson, District 2 for suggested rule change to benefit District 2’s tributes). Like all Careers, Clove is rather untrained in basic survival skills, preferring to use her weapons to outlast and take out the competition. Her skill in weapons outside of knives, while far greater than the average tribute, is simply not the same as most Careers, although this will probably not be of a great concern to her.

Final Score: 10. Clove knows her chosen tool of the trade well, and will likely use it to great effect in the Games. Sponsors bored with going with a “typical” Career tribute to back and root for will find a convincing alternative in Clove Blackwell.


End file.
